


Journal?

by JMRulz



Category: Original Work
Genre: Diary/Journal, I am fine with people reading this, I am working on it, I may not update often, School, Sort of a journal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 11,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JMRulz/pseuds/JMRulz
Summary: I would love for people to read this! This was started in June of 2020. A relative of mine suggested to me that I keep a journal of some sorts during this time period a few months ago, and for some reason I decided to put it here. I may update irregularly, so sorry.
Relationships: My friends & I
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	1. Please Read This!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me.
> 
> Please read this, because it gives you a bit of background to help this whole thing make sense.

Okay, to start off with this, this is not something I have done before, so it may take me a while to get used to this. Since this is a sort of private journal thing, I would rather not have family members reading this, so if you think you know me or maybe just want to make sure I'm okay with you reading this, send me an E-mail at jmrulz01.08.17@gmail.com to ask questions.

Things to start off with...

Made in June 2020, updated and edited a bit in November 2020

I am a high school student.  
I am a musician.  
My main instrument is currently the clarinet, though I have played piano and guitar before. I love marching band.  
I like being outside a lot.  
I am a Scout.  
My family has gone camping pretty much all of my life, so I love going camping.  
For some reason mosquitoes really like me, and I don't like it.  
I enjoy running, and ran Cross Country all years of Junior High/Middle School.  
I like biking, both on the road and mountain biking. (Farthest I've gone so far is 50 miles)  
I'm a Latin student.  
I am pretty smart, but tend to have moments of stupidity.  
I can be a bit clumsy at times.  
I am generally not good at throwing/catching balls. I am very interested in mechanical things, in particular cars, whether RC or big size. I like driving, and know how to (and enjoy getting to) drive cars with 3 or 4 pedals. (gas, brake, clutch, and normally a footrest, or dead pedal)

Some more personalized messages:

My sibling: I don't think you would end up on this site, but if you are here, please don't read this. You might want to because it is your sibling's journal, but please just do not. I really don't want you reading this.

Mom and Dad: I am aware that I am supposed to get permission before creating any accounts, but I am not sure you wouldn't read this. If you are here, please stop reading.

L.L.Bean: I love you, but your godchild does not want you reading this. I hope you are enjoying the book I lent you!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I figured out the notes! Yay! It took long enough.
> 
> I would love any comments you all have to offer, whether it contains encouragement, editing advice, how to use the site, or whatever you have to comment. If you only have negative things to say, please, by all means say it! It will help me learn. I would appreciate stuff going into the comments, because it is easier to have everything in one place, but if you feel that you do not want put it there because it there for whatever reason, you could E-mail me. Again, my E-mail is jmrulz01.08.17@gmail.com .
> 
> Thank you all, and I will try to keep updating!


	2. July 12, my first Year of Craziness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I have finally done something! I am sorry it took so long if there is anyone keeping an eye on this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DEAR PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE: If you have no idea about what is going on right now, look up the SARS-CoV-II pandemic. That should help clear things up. This was typed on an intangible keyboard, and is unedited, so if you see anything, please feel free to point it out.

Well, today we hd the first band mini-camp. It was . . . very different, with only the returning members being in my time block, and with the woodwinds, brass, percussion being divided up. We did a general review of marching technique, though with the limited time the school is allowing us, we only had time for forward and backward marching, and not slides nor the fabled circle drills. It was nice to see at least some of my friends, though it was a bit odd seeing everyone in masks. I really hope we don't have to go back to E-learning, because that _really_ , _really_ sucked at the end of the school year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate all advice, editing help, or grammar errors, so please feel obliged to point things out! Thank you to the guest whom has left kudos so far, it means a lot!


	3. 10-9-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unsurprisingly, some stuff has happened to me. I am going to put some of it here. I am really sorry about not updating here. I need to do a better job, and I really don't have an excuse. There were several opportunities that I could have used to update this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential trigger warning: description of injuries.

Well, a lot has happened in the three months since I last updated. We went camping twice, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the second time we went camping, it rained, and I decided to ride my bike at a high speed despite the fact that it was wet out. I barely touched the rear brake in a turn, and got to have a physics lesson. 1. The rear tire of your bike slides out very easily when it is wet. 2. Asphalt is highly abrasive. I somehow managed to scrape up both of my hips, despite the fact that I only slid on my left side. My hand is almost perfectly healed by now, and my forearm is a lot better looking as well. My right hip looks a lot nicer than it did a month ago.

I also scratched the back of my knee loading my brother's old dresser. I have no idea how it was so sharp, but it was. That is better as well. Most recently, I did something to my knee, and I have no idea how. It only bugs me when I bend it at certain angles, mainly going down stairs.  
Right now I am doing this, because my school issued device has just taken a dump. I restarted it to solve a problem with the stupid, worthless, piece of junk nanny program, and started several others. I cannot log on, and the workaround the school told us we needed to use at the moment (because of an issue on the school's end) is not working, and neither is the standard method. I have restarted and tried the options 30 times. I counted. I am rather annoyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has stopped to give me a moment's notice. It means a lot to me, and I hope that I can actually update before November. That of course means I actually need to remember.


	4. 10-25-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I actually managed to update in a reasonable amount of time! I'll work on lengthening these as I go along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is NOT in chronological order. I just sort of wrote.

Sorry about the last update, I was a slight bit annoyed and that showed in the entry. On to things that happened these last two weeks...

  


We had the last football game of the season. It was awesome, but at the same time, sad. The seniors didn't get any competitions, and everything was pretty weird while it was happening. Everyone I asked said that they were glad that everything was over, because it wasn't really marching band, but that they still wished that it was going to keep going, because it sure as heck beats no marching band. We lost over a month and a half of the normal season due to everything being cancelled. No one said that they didn't have fun. I hope that we are able to get everyone to come back next year. I'm not sure how many of the incoming freshmen are going to go into band. I've been meaning to ask the middle school band director if I can go and preach to them during class one day, because my section only got one freshman this year, and they _dropped out_.

There was a backpacking trip that my Scout/Guide unit decided to do, and I gave a bit of a speech about making sure that you got proper shoes, and then found out that the Scoutmaster had announced the trip for the first time on that week, with the trip being that weekend. I felt absolutely terrible, because I probably caused someone to panic and get a pair that isn't ideal. My family has decided not to go Halloween camping, because the situation with SARS-CoV-2 is getting worse, so we bought some candy for us to have as a replacement for trick-or-treating. It kind of stinks, but I didn't really have a costume planned anyways.

Last week we went to get hair cuts, and as we were stopped at a stop light in the turning lane with the windows down (and my engine off to save gas because I'm like that), I noticed a new-looking Civic Type R was stopped next to us. (For non-car people: crazy fast front-wheel drive sports car, with 300-something horsepower) There was also a beige SUV stopped on the far side of it. As I was trying to (subtly) get a closer look at it, I heard the guy in the Tahoe say, "You wanna race?" my attention immediately turned to that, as did my father's. He was of course talking to the person in the Type R. The guy in the Tahoe notices our attention, and says, "Do you want to race too? We'll let you in." (He meant let us into the straight lane, because we had to turn in ours.)

Now, let me be entirely clear. I was driving an older Toyota, with the with one of the xZZ-series engines. The ones of its age make somewhere between **97** and **140** horsepower depending on the year and vehicle, excluding the awesome 2ZZ-FE. In addition to this, my engine was off, though the two people might not have noticed that. Both of the other vehicles probably have double the horsepower the Turd, and probably have 30% wider tires at minimum. The speed limit at that point is 80 km/h (50 mph), and I go the speed limit most of the time, much to the annoyance of many people. Even with a head start, my baby (I love the car, okay?) was going to get its butt kicked. It _still_ would have been a lot of fun to race them. Unfortunately, my father said no, my kid hasn't been driving very long. (Which is true compared to his amount of time driving.) We got home, and my father told me that the wife of guy in the SUV was driving the Civic, and they had just picked it up from the dealership. This just made it even funnier, not because his wife was driving it, but because the married couple probably didn't know just how well the Civic would have done, especially once it got the turbo going. If they ever thought that that big, heavy SUV was impressive, dang were they in for a treat.

We also were late to my grandmother's birthday because the battery died in one of our vehicles, and we had to take the Toyota mentioned above, which is fine because it drives much more nicely. Don't worry, everyone there was being safe and cautious (3 of them work in healthcare). We picked up a battery on the way home, which ended up being a bit of a hassle, due to the price on the website not matching the in-store price. I also threw the battery forward in the trunk because a light turned yellow on me, and I took a moment to decide that I wouldn't make it (I would have), and ended up braking pretty hard. Oops. Dad got out and rearranged it while the light was red. Also, I hate cloverleafs. The entire concept of, "Hey, let's have people have to get on and off in the same place, so that you have a group of people trying to really accelerate and a group of people trying to brake in time for the turn in the same 40 meters of pavement! That's a great idea, and definitely doesn't justify the general populace overspending on supercars at all!" is purely idiotic. It also kills fuel economy. Not that traffic safety engineers care about that until they actually drive on the roads they made.

One day, my dad tried to inhale a piece of food at dinner, and was taking a while to cough it up. I decided to act like him, and said, "Do I need to perform the hind lick maneuver?"(This is all one phrase. I immediately realized my mistake)"I mean, the Heimlich maneuver?" The funny thing is, when you think about it, either one would probably expel the food from their esophagus. That is if they don't have a heart attack and die instantly. I estimate that the "hind lick maneuver" would have a 50% fatality rate (this is NOT based upon personal experience) for either the subject, or if they survive, the following bludgeoning of the person who administered it. The 50% that has no death is because the survivor is too embarrassed to attack the administrator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, yeah. I still start laughing my butt off when I think of those two things. This might end up being biweekly. I don't know. We'll find out! Until then, have a nice time!


	5. 11-1-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good things have happened. Yay!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, just one week! I would not recommend getting your hopes up, but this might be a new trend!

Well, we had the first full concert band rehearsal on Tuesday, and it was awesome! We sound much better when we have more than half the band, and the Auditorium has a large enough stage for everyone to fit with proper spacing! We will be having a fall concert in November, because the school approved it! Unfortunately, the large winter performance with all music departments will not be happening this year, because we cannot fit that many kids on the stage, but we still get to have a concert!

I hate standardized tests. They are stupid. The language sections in particular can be overly ambiguous, with many of the supposedly hard-set grammar questions really being left to opinion. The math sections are less optional, but stupid mistakes can really help you barely squeak in by the time limit. Stupid, stupid, stupid. >:-[

I dropped another cup, and of course it broke. I don't know why I keep dropping glasses. A person in a Buick Le Sabre ran into a telephone pole, which put our power out, so I wasn't able to finish my homework. I know we are doing a lot of virtual school, but could we maybe have paper notes at least? Preferably homework that doesn't all immediately fail when the internet is down? 

I should stop having conversations on the internet, because I now have a new dream car. I still would love to have a MR-2 Spyder, but I have been turned to the ND MX-5 Miata. Everyone I have seen talk about it raves about the car, with **no** exceptions. I have already even figured out what I would want to do with it, and how much it would cost. I wish I had more money, because even a relatively cheap car like that is out of my price range as a high school student.

We went trick-or-treating with my cousins yesterday, and then hung out and played for a bit. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet their new cat. He is a wonderful animal, though interested in playing with your hands a bit too much. I am not a cat toy for you to bat around and nip gently. As usual we were safe and careful.

I looked at the section of the site for Asimov's Robot series this week. I was hoping to find something related to _The Positronic Man_ because you cannot find the book anywhere. Holy freaking woah! I have no idea what the hutt people were thinking when all of that was written. Can someone please help that section of the site out? I am afraid to step into a fandom I have not been in now. I did not know that you could surprise me that much. **Yikes.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Have a wonderful what ever time of day it is when you read this!


	6. 11-08-2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My ELA teacher is evil. A bit of humor. My poor pants. Wonderful news!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I learned recently that this is technically a diary, but I am going to leave the title as is because "diary" sounds more personal and less inviting.

I was walking in the hallway from one class to another, and just out of nowhere I heard a guy's voice speaking fairly loudly. Now I am assuming this person was a football player, because I heard them say, "I don't care how many times I get held back, I'm gonna graduate High School on time." Now, that made absolutely no sense until I told one of my friends in band. Their reply was, "But, on time for what, [Name]?" After a moment of letting that sink in, I said, "Their 50th anniversary."

At the beginning of the week, my English teacher told us that we had a very large (20 questions that should have paragraph-long answers) webquest that we would have to lake the answers to on Google Slides. We were also told that he or she really didn't want us using the open web (which probably means do not do it for you may lose points), but that some of the links were broken. Well, we also needed to make it look pretty and put an image on each slide, as well as create a Works Cited page. Well, she or he did not tell us what format to use until Thursday when she also told us that it was due Friday. After class on Thursday, I told the teacher that a large number of the links were broken. On Friday, I used every _stinking_ bit of spare time I had, and some I did not really have to get that stupid freaking project **done**. I manage to almost entirely complete it by class, where the teacher informs us that he or she has decided to move the due date to Tuesday. WELL GUESS WHAT YOU HUNK OF BIOWASTE! I JUST WORKED MY DANG BUTT OFF TRYING TO GET THIS **STUPID** THING DONE FOR YOU! A. **_Third._** Of. Those. Flipping. Links. Actually. Worked., not a "few broken"! I hope your Ford Taurus has a flat tire! (She or he told us what car he or she drove for some reason. I would not be proud of driving one of those.)

>:-[ Okay, calming down now. At least it meant I did not have much homework this weekend and was able to find some time to drive. Though someone behind me had really bright LED headlamps that were blue sometimes and white others (something to do with angle?) and they hurt my left eye because they were almost always shining in my left side mirror for some reason. Because why not, I guess.

My dog came into my room and acted like she was interested in spending some time with me while I worked on stuff Tuesday. I petted her for a moment and then went back to work. Around 5 minutes later, I hear her licking something, and look at her. She was licking the wrapper to the Reece's I had eaten earlier. While I appreciate her good taste, I was planning to lick that off later. (It is chocolate and peanut butter. Why not?) I of course immediately confiscated it, but everything was gone. At least she had not eaten the paper.

One day, my mother called my name, and I looked up from my breakfast to see some odd gray thing in her hands. My mom told me that my sibling and I had overloaded the washer (oops) and that was not good. She continued to say that it had damaged my pants, and asked if it was okay to throw them away. I then realized that what was in her hands was my pants. Given that they were more or less a complete loss, I said to throw them out. If you have ever seen a piece of washcloth or towel that a dog has eaten, after they poop or barf it out, that is what they looked like, minus the brown color. Ouch. I actually liked those pants.

Great news!

[Excitedly] The Dacia Sanderos is—   
No, I'm kidding.

1\. Top Gear is available on Prime video! I did not realize this and was limited to what I could find on YouTube or other sources. Awesome! Even if you are not a car person, I recommend that you go check out the great three middle aged men acting like children. Just be warned that a some of what was said was not exactly politically correct or in general appropriate, even for the early 2000's. There are some sexual jokes, and some jokes I did not get, which means they were probably also sexually based. It is best summed up with this line from the show, "If you want to know why we're laughing, ask your mum and dad."-Jeremy Clarkson. (I am sure he got some letters about that one.) Now that does not mean at all that it is full of lewd jokes. The show is largely about cars, or jokes and other stuff sort of related to cars or events that were happening then. I am not a fan of absurdly rude or sexual content, and I am okay with the show. I just wanted to give you a heads up to avoid needing a flame suit.

2\. I got a new watch! I had been without one for about a month after mine died back in spring. (it had water in it, despite me never exposing it to water after the last identical watch failed after a five minute dip in a river, not going below 3 feet deep) My mom let me borrow her old backup watch because she had moved on to a smart watch. (Not my thing) About a month ago, the band developed a crack, then fell apart, and also cracked in several different places so that CA glue was not an option. I experienced severe withdrawal involving looking at my wrist non-stop for the first week and being confused by the lack of watch, getting slightly better, having a relapse at week 3, and even having to use my phone for a timer once. Oh, the horror! My phone is a way to make calls, texts, and occasionally surf the web when I have WiFi. It is _not_ a chronometer. **Period.** But today, I finally got a new watch, which I had been planning for almost a year. A friend of mine had one of a similar model, that they wore while swimming. I mentioned that possibly being a bad idea after my experiences, but they said that it had survived quite a bit and they were not concerned. I was sold. Now I have one! It is a bit bigger than I expected, but it is an adult watch with a decent amount of protection for it, and I have only had "child" watches before (they were cheaper and still fit. Watchmakers expect kids to have huge wrists for some reason) so I should have expected it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I overdo it with the formatting? _Please_ let me know. I want people to feel not weirded out reading this, even if they only read it to laugh at the dumb teenager, or if they want to know what someone else's life is like.


	7. 11-15-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some stuff with band, some stuff with doors, my lovely dog, earbuds, and deer. And homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential trigger warning? Mention of hunting.

On Monday, my English teacher informs us that the project we had was not due until Wednesday because we have a quiz. As I was walking out of school, I was walking quickly (as usual, I am not fond of being stuck in crowds) and opened the first door, and went through it. I got to the second set of doors, and went through in a small group, who all took the right door for some reason, while I took the right door. A guy in front of me turned and walked to the left, and as I pushed the door open, my head bounced off of it. "Ow!" How did I do that? After a few seconds, I realized that I had hit the shoe of the guy crossing in front of the door, which had stopped the door but not me. I began apologizing, and (this impressed me) the guy just laughed and said, "I think you got the worse side of it!" I laughed, and agreed, then we went our separate ways. I was rubbing my head as I got on to the bus, and had to explain it to the bus driver, who found it amusing as well. I was pleasantly surprised, because the guy had brushed it off, instead of attacking me for running into his precious shoes.

Tuesday, I was virtual, and in band class, I recorded our assignment (playing one of our pieces for two minutes), then played some stuff for fun. Apparently, I accidentally bumped the microphone button because in the middle of playing the main theme of _Jurassic Park_ another clarinet put something in the chat telling me that my mike was off. Oops. At rehearsal that night, he or she told me that they thought it was intentional, which I told them it was not. Later, I had to go use the restroom. When I came back, I couldn't open the doors (we were in the gym, because the stage was occupied) and the four doors I tried did not open. Not two minutes later, I see someone else coming back, and I am in the middle of getting up to let them in when they open the first door I had tried. I was surprised enough that I said aloud, "That door didn't open for me!"

One night, after working on homework, I go to tell my parents good night, and when I sit down next to one of my parents, my dog decides that she wants to be closer that me and instead of going around and hogging attention, she tries to shove between us. That did not work, so she instead tries to shove her head across my lap to my parent. After about a minute, I try to stand up, and find that I cannot because my dog's head is pushing down with a fair amount of force on my legs. She gets unhappy that I am trying to move her away from my parent, and growls a little, which I understood because she gets grumpy when it is late. My parent corrects her, but she still does not move her head. It took about five minutes and a whole bunch of petting her to get her to let me go, at which point she immediately tries to crush my parent into the floor in an attempt to prove that they are more important to her.

I think Friday, I took my earbuds out after watching a video, and see three white bits, when there are pretty much always just two. I look again, and find that the covering where it goes into your ear has come off of the Apple earbuds my parents gave me for Christmas two or three years ago (I did not use them for the first year, so this is not a use thing) I was not really disappointed other than the fact that I now have to shop for a new pair, because the previous pair (without the microphone thingy) had completely lost functionality for one ear before mysteriously disappearing at school (I feel sorry for whoever grabbed them), and this pair (with the microphone thingy) has been blasting my right ear off while giving reduced volume in the left ear for about 8 months (my solution was to just put the right one into my ear improperly). If anyone has a pair of CrappleTM iWired iEarbuds, and thinks that having multiple holes mean you have more than one speaker, you are wrong. There is one, and it looks rather dingy, and that blasting of your sound all over the room you are in is truly pointless, not a feature to improve treble quality.

I went deer hunting with my grandfather this Saturday (before someone calls an animal protection agency, we are taught how to make the act as humane as possible) and were quite successful. Slightly too successful. We had a doe show up, and he let me take the shot, but the deer moved just as I fired. We decided to let it be, because if we went after it it would keep running, and only hurt itself more than if we let it lie down. After a short time, a buck comes along, and he lets me take a shot at it as well. I shoot, but we see leaves go flying off of a tree right in front of our faces, and wait so that the buck can come back because they always do for does. Maybe 10 minutes later, it comes back and when I shoot, leaves fly again and it runs off like nothing has happened. When there is a lull in the rain, we go to look for the doe I shot. We find it, and it fortunately does not smell like it was hit in the gut, and walk a little farther to make sure that the buck was not hit. About 50 meters from it was shot, the buck is laying on the ground, having been shot perfectly. After field dressing them (That means removing the internal organs and important bits. {my grandfather asked me if I knew what the bucks genitalia were, and I said yes, then decided to make a joke by saying, "That's where his brains were at the time of the shooting" which sounds a bit insensitive, but is actually quite true during the breeding season} I will spare the details, but will mention that if you accidentally puncture the deer's stomach with a knife, it smells _several_ times worse than fresh skunk spray) we loaded the deer into my grandfather's tractor and put them in his truck. After that, we cleaned some of the blood off of our clothes, then took the deer to be processed.

Umm, on Friday my Latin teacher told us that we have a poorly explained project due on Monday, so I had almost no free time today. I believe that is all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to easystreets for commenting! Thank you so much! I actually bounced up and down when I saw that I had a comment!


	8. 11-17-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BAND!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just specific parts of the day. More on the week (that seems to be what I am doing) later.

So, we had our fall band concert today (YAAAAAY! YAYAYAYAAY!!!!!). We normally do not have one, due to marching band continuing on to about this time of year. However, the directors wanted us to have an opportunity playing live because it seems our winter concert will not be happening (sadness). They live streamed it on YouTube so that relatives that normally could just come and watch had the opportunity to see us. We could not record the performance for public viewing, due to copyright laws, but I can give you the pieces we played. The first was [Fanfare and Flourishes by James Curnow](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4RF3JjoAAmE), followed by [Festivo by Vaclav Nelhybel](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nTjZhYgJ-Bc) (pronounced Nellie-bell. This should have been our closing piece) and finally [Tharsos by Jeff Jordan](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vPDtoVvjzRE) (This is one of the better versions I found, but still a bit too much Saxophone, and the tempo is slightly unsteady. These should be links, by the way. Please let me know whether or not they work.)

So, this morning I recieved an E-mail saying that we were not going to have the concert. About two hours later, we get another E-mail saying that we have now recieved the green light, but that as it has been for everything all school year, it could change at anytime. In band class, we are told that it is still happening, and they sent us an E-mail with a YouTube live stream link.

My teachers of course decided to give me extra homework, so I was too busy working on that to notice that it was getting close to the time that I needed to start getting ready to go. Of course, there was also traffic, so no was home to say, "Hey, you might want to start getting ready." So, 20 minutes before we are supposed to arrive to start warming up, I inhale a slice and a half of pizza, clean my face off, get dressed, and forget to brush my hair, because I need to go. On the bright side, out car sounds really nice around 4500 RPM. Dad was driving a bit aggressively :-).

I arrive 20 minutes late, due to the activities mentioned earlier plus driving time, apologize in a rather rushed and stressed tone to the director, and take my seat, where I attempt to warm up, tune my instrument, adjust my clothes so that I can breathe properly (adjusters are a wonderful thing), and make my hair look presentable with my just my fingers simultaneously. Our director tells us to head down to the gym (We could not use the stage due to size), and we sort of went in in small clumps because we did not know that this was us going on the "stage". We thought it was just going to be set up, but it worked out.

The concert began on time, with a bit of an introduction from our director, and then we began playing. Fanfare went splendidly. Then, he had us show how everyone how it sounds with the hybrid schedule, which he evidently had not explained as well as he thought in class. (It was amusing) We made our second attempt, which went much more smoothly. We played Festivo, and it went well overall, but the section at 95 was a bit rough. (Just realized you do not have sheet music. It was the bit right after the flautists played on their own. I assume you know what a flute sounds like.) It still felt amazing, and it is my favorite piece. (because it is not a, "Hey! THE BRASS ARE LOUD!" piece and has stuff that is fun for the clarinets and other woodwinds) Tharsos also went well, and the crowd clapped a lot. I was quite proud.

I got a phone call and a text and my dad received a message (he did not say what type), from relatives complimenting us on the performance yesterday. Those made me even happier, both about how the performance went and that the live stream worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a day late because I fell asleep before I could finish typing it. I did not attempt to proofread, so please let me know if there are issues, or the links do not work.


	9. 11-22-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dang it.

Monday was normal, except for the fact that I learned that if you put caramel on a napkin, it will take parts of the paper napkin with it. That was a royal pain in the butt to separate, and I do not think I got all of the paper bits out of it.

Tuesday. Yay. About ten minutes before school starts, I got a text from one of my friends saying that we will be going all-virtual for the rest of the semester on Friday, with a link to the previous night's school board meeting. My first thought is "Dang it. I hope this does not mess with the concert." The reply is that it should not because the concert is on Tuesday, and we go virtual Friday. Well, five minutes before 1st period ends, I get a screenshot of an E-mail saying that the concert is "postponed until an unknown date in the future". Under a minute later, I get the E-mail. I was rather upset.

Midway through the day, before band class, we get an E-mail saying that we have been given the green light. They literally said that, which was kind of funny after I stopped bouncing up and down and squealing. We had the concert, which I detailed in the last chapter. The section I mentioned in Festivo actually did not sound bad when they showed us the recording.

I learned that my sibling no longer wanted the dog on his or her bed because it made the comforter "smell like dog". I cannot decide if I should be impressed the figured it out so quickly, or be wondering why it took so long. What the heck did you _expect_ dude(tte)?! [Sigh]

On my last in person day, one of the band kids wore a tuxedo, and another wore a formal gown (which I did not realize until after this situation), and I asked the guy who he was going on a date with. He gave me sort of a funny look, and said that it was for the funeral of school. The gal chipped in and said, "Yeah, why did you think I was wearing this?" I did not recognize her clothing as our concert attire (I see it maybe four times a normal year). As I was walking out of class, our director reminded us to join winter percussion, because they are low on members this year. I turn towards them, and say that if they can convince my ELA teacher to give me less homework, I would join.

They appear to _actually consider this_ , and then ask me who my English teacher is. Even though I am quite frankly astounded, I don't miss a beat, and tell them my teacher's name. Their reply is a slight frown and an, "I don't think that's going to happen." I almost started laughing at the fact that my teacher's reputation had reached the performing arts department, which is the last place (okay, before the football team) I would have expected to know that sort of thing.

My homework was surprisingly light this weekend, and I was able to help at Scouts for a food pantry collection we were doing. We got a truck bed and 70% of a Flex's interior worth of goods, after sorting out expired items, which was quite good, considering that a lot of people will be doing a bit more hoarding than sharing this year. We had around 20 things I was aware of that had expired within the last two weeks, and the oldest can we got had expired in 2012. 2012 is not bad. A few years ago, we had a can that expired in the 1990s, which was absolutely hilarious.

As I was studying a bit today, I opened a pack of Sour Patch, and it of course got sugar everywhere. However, there was an oversized gummy that was half blue and half green. It tasted awesome. I would like to know how that sort of thing happens. Are they injection molded or something? How does rhe flavor switch happen? I should probably just find a place where I can take a candy factory tour. Road trip!

I have been attacked by the research bug again. My father recommended that I look into a pair of higher quality headphones, because mine had died. Well, I found a wobsite or two for audiophiles. Amd then proceeded to spend eight hours of my weekend researching. That was fun!, and I eventually decided on a pair of over-ear headphones (the stereotypical type that goes all the way around your ears) that are recommended as being very durable and extremely comfortable, as well a very good sounding, although not the best at its pricepiont. I will de-tune the bass on my music slightly (they are nowhere near as bad as Beats. I have listened to those and it is _terrible_.) to compensate and be very happy. The company also offers a well-reviewed boom mic (basically one that goes in front of your face while still being connected to the headset) that you can simply clip on to your headset, for a very reasonable price.

I started isotretinoin (which had the original brand name of Accutane) almost two weeks ago. My parents more or less harassed me into it, but I do not really mind. The only bad thing is that it has dried out my face severely, and I have to use some sort of stuff on my lips to keep them from looking like a salt flat. That is only a slight exaggeration, because within the last three days, they began to be chapped and started cracking yesterday. My mom more or less told me that I needed to put petroleum jelly on them, which I had started doing that day, because while I am not fond of having goop on my lips, it is hard to play the clarinet with cracked lips.

Crap! I just realized that I forgot to play this weekend! Back on topic...

Halfway through the day, my mother comes up to me and says that she got some fancy lip balm and some stuff like petroleum jelly but stronger. I wish our grocery store did bot have a pharmacy section. I have now been more or less forced to use that instead of giving the petroleum jelly a chance. Well, mom is not home during the day, so I know what I am doing. Along with drinking a half liter of water every period, I will be using vaseline every period except for band, because I do not want to find out how my instrument likes that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone hear my headphone pun?
> 
> I will find a way to get through this. I think so. I hope.
> 
> I hate virtual, and I have a C in ELA. I sent the teacher an E-mail trying to figure out how to see comments on past assignments so I can try to make my responses fit whatever completely unobvious standards she or he has.
> 
> I am okay.


	10. 11-29-2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Side effects, dinner, my car, my sibling and our dog (again), driving, and a toilet.

Well, Monday was a fairly normal virtual school day, for a fully virtual one, except that in band class, our assignment was to play a few scales. I surprisingly had very little homework, and as a result had some free time. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot that we had a virtual Scout meeting that night. So, I missed that.

Tuesday was pretty much the same except my dog barfed in the morning. I saw and tried to get her outside, but by the time I did she was done barfing. I helped clean up some, but had to leave in the middle because I needed to get ready for school. I have to get the device going, see whether or not the sign in website (separate from the device sign in) has kept me signed in, open up the remote access software, get logged in to the computer in school, and then open a program on the school computer. Because for some reason they could not give us more powerful devices to start with.

My parents picked up a Christmas tree and an exercise bike on Tuesday. I still feel like you should wait until December for that sort of thing, but I was able to help with setting up and decorating the tree this week, so I suppose it is okay.

We have three days off this week every year, and miraculously my English teacher gave us no homework. However, she or he did give us some advice in class for improving our grades, which unfortunately did not apply to me because it was a very long-winded version of turn everything in, on time. He or she has not responded to my E-mail asking for advice on what she actually wants me to give as answers to his questions. They tend to be slightly ambiguous, and I have evidently been wrong quite regularly.

We went over to my grandparents house on Thursday, and I got to drive. I had to make a slightly questionable merge, because there was a truck with a trailer merging in front of me and I did not think the person behind me was paying attention. Luckily the SUV next to me was, because I was going 10 to 15% slower than them. Later, I shifted into first when I really should have been in second, or even third gear, and jerked us forward quite a bit. However, the tires did not even slightly break loose, which is a testament to the fact that Toyota can make a good engine for a manual transmission, unlike the idiots who designed the Duratec 20. (This is a bit of a rant, you can skip it. I have had a fun time involving that engine. If you are going to connect an engine to a fun transmission, please design it to respond to what my foot does, and for Pete's sake, do not make it so heavy that if you are off by a few hundred RPM, the tires will not start screaming at me.) Anyways, we had a lovely dinner, of which the sweet potatoes and cranberries were my favorite. The drive home was uneventful, other than seeing a few deer.

On Friday, we watched a movie in the evening. We ended up watching Home Alone 2, because my sibling and I had liked the first one quite a bit. After the movie, my sibling said something along the lines of: is it a good idea if I quickly grab the dog's toy from in front of her? My dad gave a rather strong no, and I actually said, "I think she would make a quick movement towards you if you did that" (implying her jumping at/attacking him, depending upon her mood). Of course, being an idiot, he or she decided to lunge, grab the dog's Kong, and move back quickly. After faking a grab for it. It was fairly late, and the dog gets grumpy when it is late, so she decides to defend her toy by making a snarling noise and lunging back at my sibling. I believe she snapped at them, though she may have grabbed his or her hand as a warning (not bite, just sort of firmly held in her mouth). This understandably scared my sibling quote well, made my parents angry, resulted in the dog being berated, and sent both of us to bed immediately. I would have been fine with this, if when I said good night to my mother, she had not given me a rather angry lecture about bugging the dog at night. It took a rather large amount of effort not to snap back, "I am not the idiot who is intentionally poking her! If you are going to lecture someone, lecture her or him!"

We finished a jar of pickles this week, and I asked at dinner if there were any drains that were slightly clogged. My mother told me to pour it in our bathroom toilet, which is reasonable. I poured it in very carefully, avoiding any splashing onto my hands or dropping the jar. I made the mistake of looking at the water before I flushed, and if I had thought that was urine, I would be _highly_ concerned. I flushed the toilet and it made this very, very weird bubbling vomit sound. I told dad, who is the toilet expert of the house exactly that. After it was checked out, I was told it was fine.

I wish the weather would get back to normal. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen. We did yard work this week, and it is supposed to get below zero next week. What the **heck**!

Animaniacs has been rebooted! I can remember the show being on Sundays at 7 when I was younger, and I really liked it then. The new show is pretty much as good as what I remember, although there is a bit less of the animaniacs fighting with the security guard than I remember, probably because I was not old enough to get all of the satirical elements. They did a much better job with this cartoon revival than the Looney Tunes revival.

Yesterday I went on a drive to pick up some Christmas gifts for my grandmother, and then dropped some stuff off at my Uncle's house. I visited the dogs, then headed back home. Today, I practiced parallel parking in the street, using a set of sawhorses I had no idea we had, nor any idea why we have them. I did it in the Toyota, whose name I will explain next paragraph, because it is the least valuable, and I have the most experience driving it. (I think those two things may be connected.) I was not as good as I thought I was, but surprisingly quite a bit better than my parents expected. After, I went on a drive, because we had had the battery disconnected to clean the cables. It is a good thing we cleaned them, because the battery was low on water when we checked.

Okay, so that I do nor have to keep typing "the Toyota", I am going to suffer through explaining its name. Getting it out of the way, it is named "The Turd". [gasping] ...And my mom is the one who named it. [I think someone just fainted reading that] Okay, reversing before I get ridiculed. We bought it in 2010, as a "Certified Pre-Owned" vehicle, with a rather negative experience. (To avoid the dealership if you are in my area, and feel free to send an E-mail with minimal, preferably none, personal information to see if you are, it is the one that puts the weird triple-blink thing on the top brake light of its vehicles.) They claimed no accidents, but we have since found some spots that were obviously body damaged, and also said that it had the side airbags. Now, I could see the last one being an honest mistake, because that model/generation had not been sold for a while, but Dad thought the vehicle was significantly safer than it is for back seat passengers if a side collision happened for _years_ until I found the crash test information in one of my interest research sprees. Also, our experience with that dealership has not been positive. Dad walked out because they were not willing to accept a reasonable price, and recieved a call later saying that they were willing to sell it to us. Well, he brings it home, and my mother takes an immediate dislike to it. Then dad decides that we should take it instead of mom's slightly nicer car on a two hour road trip. Before the month was over my mother has called it a turd, and the name stuck. Much to her dismay.

If you are still here, here is more about side effects of isotretinoin! I am still using extra strength keep-your-lips-hydrated stuff. However, a new side effect has emerged. I had an almost inexplicable nosebleed this week. I had not had a nosebleed for at least a year, because in 16 or 17 we had the capillaries in both of my nostrils cauterized, because of absurd nosebleeds. (My record was 5 in slightly over 24 hours, or 8 in 36 hours. So, yeah. It was bad.) If you have that done to you or a person you know, do your best to not have it done chemically. Silver nitrate or nitride, I cannot remember which, (If anyone knows, please tell me! I like learning.) is not fun stuff. If you have had an influenza or SARS-CoV-2 test, (the one where they stick it way up your nose and my dad calls "the brain probe") that is insignificant in terms of discomfort. I had to use ibuprofen because of how much my nose _hurt_. Two days later, I had another nosebleed, this one in the shower. Drying off while trying not to bump the finger on your left nostril is interesting. As is running out of tissues with a nosebleed. Yesterday I woke up to go pee, and had a nosebleed on my way back to bed. Luckily I had put some tissues in my room from a different location. Today, I had another nosebleed in the shower. I did notice that I bumped my nose, so there is an explanation. Hopefully I have no nosebleeds during school tomorrow.

I got to drive my RC! This may have been the last time before I get the new electronics system set up and installed. It was making an odd noise at the beginning, and I found out that the spur gear (bigger external gear) was slightly out of round, as was the driveshaft, causing them to contact each other every few revolutions. A couple minutes of running later, my car begins making a slightly different noise. Very loudly. It ends up that I somehow stripped four of the gear's teeth, making it skip. Fortunately the car (technically a stadium truck, but who cares?) came with two, so I was able to switch them out and drive some more. I drove until it was too dark to continue without taping a flashlight to the car, (did that once. Not my idea) I came inside. Fortunately I had managed to discharge over 50% of my battery, and did not have to wait for several hours waiting for my LiPo to reach storage charge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit less organized and more rambling than before. Sorry, and there is a slight chance I may edit it later. It probably depends on how much fun my ELA teacher wants me to have.


	11. 12-6-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> English (again), weather, isotretinoin update, teeth, food, haircuts, band, scheduling, and yearbooks!
> 
> I am surprised a teenager lasted this long without talking about food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some foul language is used in the first and second paragraphs. I apologize.
> 
> You may find the retainer photograph disturbing.

My English teacher posted a writing assignment on which we had to answer two questions based on the night's reading before class. That is normally fine, but we had been told in the Meet that there would be an assignment the next day. Well, it was not posted by 21:00, so instead of being intelligent and E-mailing my teacher, I assumed I had been stupid and misheard her. Bad idea. The next day, I for some reason decide to check to see if there is an assignment. Well, I see that there was, and wonder how the heck I missed it. I look at the post time, and it says that morning at 8:17. **Hello!** What the freaking _hell_ made you think that was a good idea? Do most people check Google Classroom if they do not have to? The answer to both is NO! you damned idiot! I bite my thumb at you, midden heap!

The whole day was more or less a rollercoaster of going between wanting to go into an internet-free chamber with my phone, tablet, bookshelf, CD player, and a large collection of CD's, and taking an axe, machete, bat, or whatever damaging object I could find to all of my teacher's electronics, screw the damn rozzers. They can come knock on my door now that we have a law enforcement officer down the street. Let's see if the dog bites a bunch of men with clubs, that should be fun. Okay, calm again now. Still irritates me just a tiny little bit. 🤬

We had our first snow, which pretty much all melted by 15:00 the next day, except for some reason the snow on my dad's car. He took the Turd to work because I am not using it, which is why his car was home. (all the publik skuelz uhrownd hear our bak tue all vurchooal sceulun). I took the dog for her afternoon walk this week, and realized that it has finally begun to smell like winter. I am not sure how exactly to describe it. The air smells crisp, I guess would be the right word. If someone else gets what I mean, you aren't alone!

No more nosebleeds! I have absolutely no idea why, but I am not complaining. My face and lips in particular are still fairly dry, but I have not had to lotion my face yet. I have hypersensitivity issues and it bugs me. My hands, however have gotten worse again. They had a weird slight purplish tint to them on Thursday, which was weird, but a bit of lotion solved that. Since then, my hands are just normally chapped looking, which I do not usually have to deal with, but is a lot less concerning. I had blood drawn for tests, and got to drive my mother's car there. I hate that thing. It really just drives like a boat, and while I get that it is very different than my beloved Turd, the dang transmission just absolutely ruins it. Whatever those people were thinking when they programmed that absolute slushbox of a CVT, is quite clearly not correct. If my foot says accelerate gently, do not rev to 3000. Do not do that, and then accelerate better than that at 1700 RPM 30 seconds later. It just makes people want to stab holes in the poorly placed oil filter.

Well, today I pulled my retainer out by one side instead of both like usual, and after it came out, it broke into two pieces. That was absolutely lovely. At least we had a spare because that one had holes in it. Now the spare is my retainer until it looks to be on its last legs. I also think that my wisdom teeth are coming in. More specifically, I think I can feel the corner of the bottom left one, and my bottom right feels different than the two top spots, so at least two are on their way. I really hope they do not need to get pulled, bit keeping them is pretty unlikely. Lettuce see how that impacts eating, and more importantly playing my instrument. Oh, dear. How exciting!

We had corned beef for lunch this week. A bit of a rare treat for us, because the stuff tends to he hard to find uncooked (or cooked, for that matter) at a decent price. And it takes over three hours to cook. I enjoyed it greatly!

On Thursday, we had band practice! But I had a psychology appointment before it, and a haircut after. With a fair bit of homework. I eventually decided that I could make band, so Mom drove me over there, dropped me off, we played together, and then I headed out as quickly as possible. I got in her car, she drove us there, I went in with a mask, and got my haircut. I went back with my dad, and Mom took my sibling back home to work on his or her homework. I like having my hair look nice, but I am not overly fond of having a haircut. I like to keep my hair fairly short, as having it longer bugs me, but I hate that there is hair all in my shirt (I actually take my sweatshirt off for the express purpose of keeping it hairless) that bugs me and that I have to take at least two (at the normal time interval, I will not take an extra one just for hair issues) showers to stop shedding for some reason. Still, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

About the band stuff! They set up a practice this Thursday and next Thursday last week after we were informed we were going all virtual. Well, the two activities mentioned above were scheduled before we knew that, causing the issue. I told the directors in class that I may not be able to make it, and was glad (but still embarassed) to walk in 5 minutes late. We got two new pieces of music, Caliber (of watches, not firearms), and Romanesque (which we played a bit last year, but now have new members to make things interesting). It was _great_ to see everybody, and I have started a plan to run a Google Meet over Winter Break with the band kids. I can set it up, and have the hardware (basically borrowing my parents laptop and using an Ethernet cable to ensure stability) to run it, but I do not have the contact information to let everyone know. Luckily, one of the other clarinetists does, so this should (hopefully!) work!

Yearbooks came in a while ago, and mine was finally picked up this week. There are more errors than I would think is typical (based upon what I have seen so far not done yet), but the end of the year was rather wonky.. The first that really caught my attention was that they goofed up a name in one of the band photos. I can completely understand this one because we have a Charlie who plays trumpet and a Charles who plays clarinet, and both of them have the same first letter in their last name. Error number two is that they mixed up a musician's grade, and said that they were a year older than they were. Again, I can understand that. Now, the third error on the other hand, obviously involved a distinct lack of thought. They took photos of the tennis teams at practice, which is normal. What was not normal is that two of the photos of the men's tennis team were taken when the guys were shirtless. Now, I do not care how good you think your muscles look, I do not need to see that. The person responsible for that page was obviously either a friend of the two guys or absolutely freaking smitten with them. I did not expect to see that, and I would not have wanted to see that had I known it would be there.

#### Retainer image:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for spending a few minutes of your life on this! It means a lot to me.  
> If you find any typos, please let me know. This was typed on a mobile device.


	12. 12-13-20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A car in a ditch, ADHD medication, alarms, socks, and some idiots with a Civic.

Last Sunday, my mother harassed me into taking an ADHD booster medication (basically a quick acting medicine for when your primary one has worn off). Well, it did not help me focus at all but instead just made me jittery. And then I went to bed. Notice that I said "bed", not "sleep" I am pretty darn sure that I did not fall asleep until after 2:00. Yeah, never doing that again.

I hate those socks that end just below your ankle. They have a weird edge that rubs against your skin and when you are walking your lovely dog, they let air straight to your skin, making you wish you hadn't agreed to buy the stupid things.

On Friday, I heard the national anthem at 7:30, and for the life of me could not figure out where it was coming from. My stupid earbuds were not malfunctioning more than normal, and my radio was off. As the day went on, I forgot about it. Then Dad asked my sibling how he liked his alarm that morning when he got home. It ended up that my father had told his or her assistant speaker thingy to change the alarm the previous night. I got up form my homework to inform them that I thought that was an awesome idea (for I do not have one of those stupid personal assistant things) and then continued to say that he should hage used [Long Way to the Top](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-sUXMzkh-jI) by ACDC or [Heaven and Hell](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QWN46MH4xMk) by Black Sabbath for the bagpipes or guitar, because that will wake you up very effectively. I found the whole event quite hilarious, contrary to my sibling.

Also on Friday, I was taking the dog on her customary afternoon walk, and kept hearing an odd noise as I was going along. As I got closer, I realized that it was a car's exhaust note as it was being revved. It also sounded odd, like an instrument with a bad reed. Eventually I got to it, and saw that it was a couple of teenaged guys (all not wearing masks) with a Honda Civic. They were in fact revving the engine, presumably by putting it in neutral. As I got near, one of them spotted me (I saw 3, but stupid comes in groups) and they let it fall back to idle before revving it and then dumping it in to gear. This resulted in the tires screaming and the vehicle taking off, at which point whoever was driving had to slam the brakes to avoid hitting the other car in the driveway. By then I recognize one of them as a kid who rode my bus, and I am holding onto my dog's leash a little more tightly so she does not freak and run at them or away from me. As I continue walking by, the process is repeated several times while one of them smokes something. I get to the end of the road and turn around, by which point the unholy racket has stopped. I head back up, still terribly confused about what on earth the idiots were doing. As I get near them they do the launch thing again, so I responded the only way I could think of: "You know, if you keep the tires from breaking loose, you will get a better launch."

Well, it stops for a moment, and I am most of the way home, when I suddenly hear the engine revving and staying revved behind me. Looking over my shoulder, they are driving along the road and then suddenly, the tires scream again and they lurch forwards. I sped up a bit, but they fortunately seemed to be doing the go and then break thing. I get to my street and stop to talk to one of the neighbors. The car comes by and I see one of the kids. The guys stop doing the rubber-burning-whatever-it-is once they go past me. When they come by a few minutes later (I was talking with my neighbor for a while) the boy I had recognized leaned their upper half out of the window and said hey to me. I was a bit concerned that they were going to head down the street towards us. I also noticed that the car was an automatic when the high school idiots failed to stop at the double yellow line.

Dad and I had went to the store for something we had missed and stopped behind a car at an intersection. The first car took off (rather quickly, I think. I was not paying too much attention.) We went after them, and saw the car had gone off the road and over a bit of a ditch into a grassy area. I convinced him to stop and turn on the car's emergency flashers, because I would feel bad about leaving some poor person stuck when we could easily try to help. We put our masks on and then ask the woman, whose daughter was driving, if there was anything we could do to help. She seemed very grateful, and funnily enough, the main thing on her mind was finding the piece of her bumper that broken off. I found it and gave it to the mother. I told the girl, who I had sort of recognized from school, not to feel bad because I had almost put us into an SUV the other day, because I know that _I_ would feel absolutely terrible after doing something like that. My dad suggested that she should go forward and back to the section of the intersection they had come from because their car would probably get stuck reversing. (It was a very new looking Hyundai and like all new cars, has almost no ground clearance. An advantage of driving an older car like mine!) I walked to the area she would drive through just to make sure she did not find a hole or something. We went on home, and had an enjoyable rest of the day.

The weather is almost too warm for me to wear pants again. I want winter, planet!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone have any sort of an idea what the high school aged guys with the Civic were doing? I still have absolutely no idea, and it is really unnerving. I normally can figure out why people do things.


	13. 12-30-2020

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not much has happened, which is why I paused my weekly schedule.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential trigger warning: description of injuries.

So, I'm not dead!

The week after my last update was finals week, which was pretty uneventful, other than me calling my English teacher an orc during the Meet. If people are taking a test, do not keep talking. If someone needs to adjust their camera, have them do it before the dang test starts. If that is not possible, try to be less intrusive. If I have to mute my device to focus on the test, you are talking too much.

We were given two days to write an entire paper in English, but I managed to ~~beat my head against a wall enough~~ complete it in time. Latin had a final project over one of the buildings in the Forum, which I _think_ went well.

After that week, I was at home and did chores, read a lot, go on a run or two, and got to actually play on my X-Box some, as well as our old Wii. Christmas was enjoyable, and we did a video call with some of our farther off relatives, and then Boxing Day was spent with our nearby relatives. Both days were quite enjoyable, and I got some nice presents.

I was running with the dog and tripped on my shoelace two days ago. The result was a rather impressive splat against the road. (We do not have a kerb or pavement to walk on/on the other side of in my immediate area.) I of course somehow managed to remove the skin from my right hip, despite having a heavier set of clothes on. (What the heck do I have against my hips? I injured them in my biking accident as well.) My right arm was barely scraped above the elbow, also through a heavier clothing item, in this case a sweatshirt. I got very lucky that the dog did not decide to run off after a small furry rodent right then, because I was neither holding on to her leash nor in a position to chase her down. I feel like an idiot because I even thought about adjusting my shoelaces before I went out, because the left one looked a bit long in the loop section.

We hung wreaths up on our windows, and the one outside mine has been squeaking against the glass very obnoxiously for the last few days. It is doing it right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am doing fine.
> 
> Thank you to everyone for reading this.


	14. 2-3-2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of news.

Okay, so I haven't updated this in a while. I've not really felt like updating it either. Because of this, I think I'm going to discontinue this, with a possibility of continuing it again later. I appreciate everyone that spent the time to read this, whether you read it completely or not. I apologise for doing this, but I have just lost the combination of inspiration and free time that was helping me to do this project. Again, I appreciate everyone that read this. Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading this! If you notice anything grammar, HTML syntax, or just want to chat, please feel free to leave a comment.! If there is a reason you do not want to use the comments section, my E-mail is jmrulz01.08.17@gmail.com
> 
> Thanks!


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